promote economic integration, competitiveness and sustainable development in Northern Europe.

In addition to the four ND Partners namely EU, Russia, Norway and Iceland, also participating are:

EU Members States in their national capacity

Regional Councils, the Arctic Council (AC), the Barents Euro-arctic Council (BEAC), the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM);

International Financial Institutions (IFIs), e.g. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) as well as other financial institutions;

universities, research centres and the business community;

Canada and the United States as observers;

Belarus participates in practical cooperation.

Geographic coverage

The policy covers a broad geographic area, from the European Arctic and Sub-Arctic to the southern shores of the Baltic Sea, countries in the vicinity and from north-west Russia in the east, to Iceland and Greenland in the west.

Renewed commitment

Practical cooperation takes place within the Northern Dimension Partnerships

To facilitate ND sectorial cooperation and project implementation, four sectorial Partnerships have been established to deal with the following thematic issues:

environment (NDEP);

public health and social well-being (NDPHS);

transport and logistics (NDPTL);

culture (NDPC).

An ND Institute (NDI) and ND Business Council (NDBC) have been established to involve academia and business community into ND cooperation.

The ND Institute maintains the website and provides updated information about ND on Twitter (@ND_Institute).

Funding

ND cooperation is based on the principle of co-financing. Over the years, the EU has contributed close to €100m to support the ND aims, out of which the biggest share, €84m has been allocated to the ND Environmental Partnership's Support Fund (NDEP Support Fund). The total value of the NDEP Support Fund exceeds €330m, EU and Russia being the major donors.